


De-Escalation Protocol

by Mister_Fox



Series: Glimpses of Futures Gone [4]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Battle, Visored!Kisuke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:49:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24419932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mister_Fox/pseuds/Mister_Fox
Summary: The Hougyoku is Rukia's soul was a fake, meant to explode the moment Aizen put it into himself. Unfortunately, he noticed. The Arrancar he sends out of Las Noches are ever more advanced, ever more evolved, scouring the Living World and Soul Society for the real Hougyoku.Everyone else has been forced to escalate their powers in kind.This makes the battles take a greater toll on some people than others.UraIchi Week 2020 - Day 4, Canon Divergence AU.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke
Series: Glimpses of Futures Gone [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1763494
Comments: 5
Kudos: 90
Collections: UraIchi Week 2020





	De-Escalation Protocol

“Hey,” Ichigo says, walking along the edge of the bridge, and then dropping down to sit on it, legs hanging over. He aches all over after his fight, even with Orihime’s healing. The bone-deep exhaustion never leaves, these days. “Glad to see you’re okay.”

Kisuke doesn’t move where he’s perched on the very edge, doesn’t physically acknowledge him, but his reiatsu ripples in response, before it’s drawn back in.

If Ichigo didn’t _know_ Kisuke would be here, he’d have never found him. 

If Kisuke hadn’t wanted to be found, Ichigo would never have known where to look.

“Aizen _really_ outdid himself this time. It was only one Arrancar that popped up at the site we got sent to investigate, but, damn, it was a really one of a kind piece of bullshit.” And considering they’ve been fighting this weird, small incursions every other week, large incursions every three months war as Aizen tried to find the real Hougyouku, instead of the wired-to-blow-when-activated fake… That’s really saying something.

Kisuke makes a noncommittal noise.

“She has this _really_ weird power - she turned things around her _cute_. And her power worked on _us,_ too. At least she couldn’t control us like she could control her cute monsters.” Ichigo shudders. “Her resurrection turned her into this- she must have been a penguin-themed adjuchas, I think, and I really don’t want to know what that would look like. Although I don’t think any penguin naturally comes with that many bows and frills.” Ichigo stretches and takes the opportunity to edge a little closer to Kisuke, who’s now half-looking at him, hair still falling over his face.

“Orihime managed to dodge the attacks, but Rukia got turned into this small pink bunny, which, really, not surprising.” Ichigo takes out his phone, checking that Orihime already texted him the photos. “You’re never going to believe what I turned into.”

He holds out his phone.

A clawed hand slowly reaches for it, careful to not touch his own.

Kisuke flicks through the photos of a strawberry plushie with legs and arms, still holding an unaffected Zangetsu. A soft, distorted laugh filters out from behind his mouthless Hollow mask, which now has several cracks running around the edge.

“We took her down thanks to Rukia’s kidou, mostly. She was… a real pain, honestly. Fighting as a plush animal is _not fun_ , and my opponents mostly being giant teddy bears and rabbits and whatever else? Yeah, no thanks, it’s just _weird_ and _wrong_. My nightmares will now feature fluffy things.” Ichigo makes a pause. “We even fought a _giant_ _mochi_.”

The mask is starting to flake apart, and when Kisuke gives Ichigo his phone back, his nails are- much longer and sharper than they ought to be, but they’re no longer the long, wicked claws they were before.

“You and Yoruichi-san were pretty far away, but- I gotta know, who was the one using the mountain as a bludgeoning weapon? I could see it all the way on our end.”

Kisuke takes a moment to answer. “It was Yoruichi-san.” His voice is still wrong, still distorted, Benihime’s voice still overlapping his own, but it is less than when he laughed. “We were faced with a self-replicating cockroach-esque… I am not entirely sure? It may have been several Arrancar with similar powers, one Vasto Lorde that has shattered upon Arrancarification, or merely one Arrancar with multiple bodies. Yoruichi-san got tired of trying to kill them individually.”

“Well, I guess that’s one way of dealing with a pest infestation,” Ichigo jokes. “No such kill as overkill these days, right? Remember that guy that kept growing clones of himself out of a bunch of rats he released onto the battlefield? Even his own side ended up working with us to take him down after he started sprouting out of _them_ , too.”

There’s still some fragments of the mask lingering around Kisuke’s temples, still a hint of burning red in his eyes, but it fades as he smiles. It’s a small, tired smile, with teeth that are a little too sharp, but Ichigo’ll take this victory.

They’re all having to adapt and evolve and keep changing to keep up with Aizen’s relentless tide of monsters. But Benihime did not take well to the affront of Hollowfication. Kisuke pays dearly for each use of those powers, Ichigo knows.

Kisuke picked up Ichigo’s pieces and stuck them back together stronger than before so many times. Now it’s Ichigo’s turn.

Ichigo stands up and offers Kisuke his hand.

“Let’s go home. We could both use some food and sleep.” Ichigo takes an exaggerated sniff of himself. “Maybe a shower.”

“That _does_ sound delightful. Yes. Let’s go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are my air, food, water, and fuel.
> 
> Here's a link to [Cywscross' UraIchi Discord Server](https://discordapp.com/invite/ADFnKTZ#_=_)!


End file.
